Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Recorded in 1963 but not released until 1967 on Sun Ra’s own Saturn label, the record has become one of the most discussed of Ra’s New York recordings

Originally released in a sleeve with a Sun Ra doodle, the better known cover, designed by Richard Pedreguera, was in place by 1969.

The album has increasingly been discussed within the context of anticipating psychedelia or pointing towards the funk of George Clinton;

Clinton’s astral ritual seems as inspired by the Nation of Islam as it is by Sun Ra, and when asked about the Ra in 1979, Clinton said:
“This boy was definitely out to lunch – the same place I eat at.”

One of the remarkable factors in Brazilian music during the early 70’s was the experimentalism. The lack and inversion of rules and as well as the freedom’s idealism echoed from Europe and the United States and entered in Brazil. Here we see this factor in bands that appeared between the end of the 60’s and the first years of the 70’s. Bands consolidated in Rio De Janeiro; influenced by the “carioca” way, some jazz sources and by the psychedelic rock.

In 1971 the Odeon launched a collective LP, “Posições“ (Positions), with four new bands. One Som Imaginario (Imaginary Sound) was not unknown (with one record from the last year); the others A Tribo (The Tribe) , Equipe Mercado (Market Team) and Modulo 1000 (Module 1000) were pretty new bands, and from this record didn’t get so far, as bands. As musicians many of the participants of the bands, mostly from A Tribo and Som Imaginario, became very famous, with long-term carriers.

A TRIBO (1971)

A Tribo was a band formed by beginning young musician’s : the Carioca singer Joyce, the violinist Nelson Angelo and the guitarist Toninho Horta from Minas Gerais , the bass player Novelli and the percussionist Naná Vasconcelos from Pernambuco. Nana and Nelson Angelo were playing in the Free Quarteto, a mix of Bossa Nova and Jazz quartet. In 1970, the two musicians joined the Luiz Eça and Sagrada Family band. There they met the singer Joyce. Nana, Nelson and Joyce called Toninho Hortaand Novelli and formed the Tribe (A Tribo). Together they made some compositions of they own and played covers from Milton Nascimento and Danilo Caymmi. In 70 they were at the V International Festival of the Song with “Onoceonoekoto” (Nelson Angelo). The same year they participated in the collective “Posições” and also recorded a Compact Disc. The sound from A Tribo is very interesting. It discloses the symbiosis of rising talents with the voice of Joyce, Novelli’s bass, the arrangements of Nelson Angelo, the guitar of Toninho Horta and the creativity and improvisation of Naná Vasconcelos, who after some months left the band for a solo career. Nenê replaced him. However the band did not last very much beyond 1972, but all the band’s participants had a very successful carreer after that.

EQUIPE MERCADO (1971)

EQUIPE MERCADO was a band created in Rio de Janeiro during 1970. The band had a very creative and illustrious singer, Diana, allied with the songwriter Stul (guitar, piano and voice); Leugruber (guitar), Ricardo Ginsburg (guitar), Carlos Graça (battery) and Ronaldo Periassu (percussion). The band was influenced greatly by psychedelic rock, but it also abided by the Brazilian melodic lyricism. Beyond the participation in the collective “Posições” the group released a compact with the music: “Campos de Arroz” and “Side b rock” in the same year. The band ended the same year. In 1972 Diana and Stul launched another compact disc, presenting themselves as a couple, but, unfortunately they didn’t record anything else.

MODULO 1000 (1971)

MODULO 1000 was a quartet formed by Daniel (guitar and vocals, Luis Pablo (guitar), Eduardo(bass), Candinho (battery) in Rio De Janeiro in 69′. Dispite its short duration it left a great influence for the progressive rock bands that were to follow. Modulo 1000 mixed blues, rock and a touch of ballad. The participation of the band in the “V International Festival of the Song” culminated with a compact launched by Odeon with: “Big Mamma” and “Isto Não Quer Dizer Nada”. Still in 70′ they would participated in the collective “Posições”. In 72′, they launched the only LP of the history of the band, the cult: “Não Fale Com as Paredes “ (“Do not speak with the Walls”).

SOM IMAGINÁRIO (1971)

In 1971 SOM IMAGINARIO debuted a new record, without the singer and pianist Zé Rodrix that followed to play with Sá and Guarabira. As well as the previous record (commented in the Saudosas Bolachas/1970) it was directed by Zé Rodrix, in this new one was directed by the Frederiko. The guitarist occupies this rank and so, the record is presents much more dense and radical that the first one; and the most anarchical possible. At this time, the record does not give many concessions commercial standards. The record opts to a sonorous radicalization. Breaking for dissonance and hardcore. The record has the preciosity of Wagner Tiso keyboard , Luiz Alves (bass), Robertinho Silva (battery), Frederiko (guitar) and Tavito (guitar). From this record “Som Imaginario” (1971) Odeon Records used the song: “Nova Estrela” (Wagner Tiso/Frederyko) to place in the collective “Posições”.

Mulatu Astatke born 1943 surname sometimes spelled Astatqé on French-language releases, is an Ethiopian musician and arranger best known as the father of Ethio-jazz.

Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston where he combined his jazz and latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music.

Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone and conga drums instruments that he introduced into Ethiopian popular music as well as other percussion instruments, keyboards and organ. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music and Astatke appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during Ethiopia’s Golden ’70s.

Astatke’s family sent the young Mulatu to study engineering in Wales during the late 1950s. Instead, he earned a degree in music through studies at the Welsh Lindisfarne College and then Trinity College of Music in London. In the 1960s, Astatke moved to the United States, where he became the first African student to enroll at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he studied vibraphone and percussion.

While living in the US, Astatke became interested in Latin jazz and recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul, Volumes 1 & 2, in New York City in 1966. The records prominently feature Astatke’s vibraphone, backed up by piano and conga drums playing Latin rhythms, and were entirely instrumental, with the exception of the song “I Faram Gami I Faram,” which was sung in Spanish. Though these records are almost indistinguishable from other Latin-jazz records of the period, some tracks foreshadow elements of Astatke’s later work, and he is credited as having established conga and bongo drums as common elements in Ethiopian popular music.

In the early 1970s, Astatke brought his new sound, which he called Ethio-jazz, back to his homeland while continuing to work in the US. He collaborated with many notable artists in both countries, arranging and playing on recordings by Mahmoud Ahmed, and appearing as a special guest with Duke Ellington and his band during a tour of Ethiopia in 1973.

During this time, Astatke recorded another album in New York, Mulatu of Ethiopia (1972). Meanwhile, the bulk of his recorded material was being released on Amha Eshèté’s eponymous Ethiopian label Amha Records in Addis Ababa, which released several Mulatu Astatke singles along with the 1974 album Yekatit Ethio-Jazz and six out of the 10 tracks on that year’s Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits compilation. Astatke’s records appeared alongside releases by notable Ethiopian vocalists Mahmoud Ahmed, Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Alèmayèhu Eshèté, and others, all of whose music was influenced by the infusion of American jazz and Latin instrumentation that Astatke brought to Ethiopia.

By 1975, Amha Records had ceased production after the Derg military junta forced the label’s owner and many other Ethio-jazz luminaries to flee the country. Astatke stuck around long enough to play vibes for Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band’s 1977 album Tche Belew (which featured the original classic “Musicawi Silt”) before the Wallas also left Ethiopia to tour internationally. But by the 1980s, Astatke’s music was largely forgotten outside of his homeland.